Jetfire

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Space shuttle

Jetfire is probably the best second-in-commandOptimus Prime could conceivably have. Jetfire is more than a yes-man; he's the crucial link between Prime's role-necessitated distance and his troops. Though professional and businesslike, Jetfire infuses his interactions with a down-to-earth friendliness. And where Optimus Prime is cautious, Jetfire is more prone to tempered bursts of gusto and bravado. While Optimus Prime is your leader who's your leader, Jetfire is your leader who's your friend. Because of this, Jetfire is very popular among the Autobots.

Most importantly, Jetfire is one of the only Autobots who will tell Optimus Prime to his face when he thinks he's wrong. It is this trait that makes Jetfire indispensable.

Jetfire has a long-lost brother Overcast, and while the two are quite similar in many ways, Jetfire is far more willing and eager to jump into battle than Overcast.

He has a Decepticon alter-ego, Sky Shadow, which he affects when doing undercover missions. He found the name in history archives which referred to a Sky Shadow from the legendary Beast Wars. Nobody's really sure how that works. Maybe it's that bloody Unicron Singularity's doing.

Japanese name (Super Link):Skyfire

Japanese name (Galaxy Force):Dreadlock / Dreadrock

Hungarian name (Energon):Lángcsóva ("Flame-burst" or summin' to that effect)

Hungarian name (Cybertron):Röptűz ("Flyfire", same as his G1 counterpart's name; although he's called Lángcsóva at least at one occasion in the series.)

Contents

Fiction

Anime continuity

Armada

Before Optimus Prime and his squad left for Earth in response to the Mini-Con signal, he left Jetfire in command of the remaining Autobot forces on Cybertron.

Much later, Optimus Prime requested Jetfire's assistance as the battle for the Mini-Cons reached a dangerous point with the discovery of the Star Saber sword and the Skyboom Shield. As Jetfire made his way to Earth, he was followed by the Megatron loyalist Tidal Wave, who had similarly been requested by the Decepticon strategist Thrust. Chase

Thrust's arrival quickly improved Decepticon battle strategy, sending the Autobot forces on Earth into disarray. Optimus Prime himself would have been defeated if not for the timely arrival of Jetfire, who quickly defeated the surprised Decepticon air power and forced the rest into retreat. Tactician

Jetfire was quickly installed as second in command, but as everybody who had never served with him discovered, he was a very different kind of 'bot compared to the reserved Optimus Prime. Where Optimus was cautious and analytical, Jetfire was brash and headstrong to the point of recklessness, jumping into the unknown without considering the consequences. As a result, in his first major battle with the Decepticons, Jetfire decided to take all of their air forces on by himself, getting himself into serious trouble. Fortunately, Optimus Prime had recovered enough from his injuries to launch a counter-attack on the Decepticons and unleash his secret weapon - the ability to Powerlink with Jetfire, resulting in the powerful Jet Optimus. Link Up

During a battle on a distant beach over a new mysterious Mini-Con storage panel, Optimus Prime and Jetfire once again combined into Jet Optimus to take the fight to the Decepticons. However, even Jet Optimus' power was tested by the arrival of Tidal Wave. The giant Decepticon's sheer strength and firepower forced Jet Optimus on the backfoot, and in their shared gestalt mind, both Optimus and Jetfire were at a loss as what to do. Awakening

Energon

During the ten years since the defeat of Unicron, Jetfire was upgraded into a new, more advanced body uploaded with the Spark of Combination, which granted him the ability to powerlink with other compatible robots. Jetfire was selected by Optimus Prime to accompany him and Inferno to Mars to investigate a mysterious attack on the energon mining colony there by a group of mysterious bestial transformers. Jetfire was less than pleased when the inexperienced and immature Ironhide wanted to tag along merely to satisfy his hero worship of Hot Shot, but decided to let the youngster come along after Optimus Prime left the decision to Jetfire. After surveying the damage on Mars, Jetfire quickly destroyed a large number of avian drones attacking Ocean City on Earth. Cybertron City

Soon afterward, the mining colony on Earth's Moon was attacked by the same mysterious energon-eating creatures. Tasked with conducting reconnaissance, Jetfire and Kicker fought their way through dozens of the bird drones, with the gifted human playing a crucial role in their successful mission. Energon Stars

After Ironhide acquitted himself with distinction during the mission on the Moon, Jetfire practiced powerlinking with the younger Autobot, who, unfortunately, could not time the sequence properly. The reason behind the attacks was (partially) revealed when the powerful Scorponok, commander of the beast transformers known as the Terrorcons, attacked Plain City. Jetfire arrived with the Autobot reinforcements and finally successfully powerlinked with Ironhide, allowing the young Autobot the honor of being the controlling component of their combined form. Scorpinok

Cybertron

After the second defeat of Unicron, Jetfire resettled on Nebulon for an indeterminate period of time. Over time, he adopted a local accent, one that sounded very vaguely like an Earth American trying to pull off an Australian accent, but ultimately failing. Jetfire appeared to have mellowed in the past 10 years. He was considerably more cautious compared to his reckless youth, and adhered much more closely to orders and protocol. Perhaps all those brushes with death have finally knocked some sense into his head, or his head was replaced while on Nebulon. He returned to Cybertron, his homeworld once again facing a monumental crisis, perhaps the worst in its history.

As a backup plan, Optimus Prime ordered Jetfire to visit Earth and provide them with scans of Earthen vehicle modes for the population of Cybertron to adopt. This was done so that should their primary plan of destroying the Unicron Singularity fail, the population of Cybertron could assume disguises and relocate to the human homeworld, whose inhabitants were still largely unaware of the existence of real Transformers. Fallen

After the final battle with Galvatron, peace spread across the galaxy. As part of a new initiative, Optimus Prime left aboard the starship Atlantis to chart new territory, leaving Jetfire in charge of planet Cybertron. End

Free boonie hats for all!

Dreamwave comics continuity

Armada

Jetfire was initially unimpressed with Optimus Prime, feeling that Prime had abandoned the Autobots on Cybertron for affairs on Earth. He soon saw eye-to-eye with his commander once more when the stakes of Unicron's coming were revealed.

Energon

Toys

Armada

Jetfire is a futuristic space shuttle molded primarily in white and gray with red paint stripes resembling the stripes seen on the original G1 Jetfire. His Mini-Con Comettor serves as his front landing gear and forward gun in vehicle mode. When Comettor (or any other Mini-Con) is connected to the Powerlinx ports on his wings, a large red missile/bomb is dropped. When connected to Jetfire's main engine, two small wings are deployed for atmospheric flight. In robot mode Jetfire's rear landing gear becomes a shield, and his main engine forms his rifle.

When the tail fin of Armada Jetfire's engine/weapon is pressed downward, it activates the original Generation One Autobot "laser" sound effect. Pressing the tail fin upwards (perhaps by placing the shuttle upright as if in launching mode) activates a rather garbled blast-off countdown sequence. Both sounds are also incredibly easy to trigger. When a Mini-Con is powerlinxed to the gun/engine, a different laser gun sound is heard. Prior to the release of Powerlinx Jetfire, a running change erm, changed the sound effects.

The Japanese release includes a much brighter white plastic, the removal battle wear and heat re-entry burn decos, more detailed paint operations throughout his body and accessories as well as different plastic colors.

"Don't come the raw prawn with me, sport, or I'll show you the rough end of a pineapple!"

The Powerlinx redeco of Jetfire replaces much of the gray and red with blue, in a color scheme very similar to the Macross/Robotech Valkyrie fighter jet flown by Maximillian Jenius/Sterling.

Golden Jetfire (Giga-Con, 2003)

A redeco of Jetfire with golden vacuum metalizing. It was a first prize of the sortition and only exclusive in certain stores and department stores. There is a golden vacuum metalizing Armada Prime as another first prize. They can combine into Golden Jet Prime, of course.

Energon

Jetfire (Mega, 2004)

Japanese ID number:SC-05

Accessories: Spring-loaded missile launcher and 1 missile

"If it was raining virgins I'd get washed down the drain with a poofta."

Jetfire transforms again into a white and red futuristic space shuttle, this time in the smaller Mega size class and with the ability to combine with most other Autobot Deluxe and Mega Energon toys. He features an electronic transforming sound effect that activates when another Autobot combines with him.

The Japanese version of this toy does not feature any of the electronics, uses red translucent plastic in place of orange, and has a sticker covering the now-absent battery compartment.

This was the Japanese release of Energon Overcast, though still portrayed as the same character of Skyfire. There are some differences in paint application, but the major difference is the inclusion of an orange Energon Spear, originally belonging to Skyblast.

Cybertron

"Now listen mate, I need to splash the boots. You know, strain the potatoes. Water the horses. You know, go where the big knobs hang out..."

Jetfire was once again Ultra-sized, but this time transformed into a green cargo plane resembling a modified Antonov An-225. The design of the vehicle mode features a small homage to Jetfire's previous shuttle forms via a (non-opening) hatch featuring 'teeth' on the dorsal section. Jetfire features sound effects by pressing the port side aft engine nacelle. Inserting his Cyber Planet Key into his tail assembly in either vehicle or robot mode causes a pair of translucent red cannons to extend, and the compartment they are mounted on to raise. Pressing the port side aft engine now features a different sound effect. The tail section can be swiveled up to form an attack mode somewhat resembling the "gerwalk" form of a Macross Valkyrie (appropriately).

In robot mode Jetfire has a tendency to topple back due to the heavy battery operated gimmicks of the tail section, though he is more stable if one puts him in an action-oriented pose. In this mode he features two pop-out (non-firing) missile pods in his waist and wields his two wing-mounted (spring-loaded) missile launchers.

The US version of this toy has a bar between the barrels of the translucent red tail cannons to provide structural integrity at the cost of aesthetics. The other cosmetic difference between the US and Japanese versions is that the Galaxy Force release has more paint applications. Finally, the Cybertron release comes with a silver-bordered Earth planet Cyber Key with key codeuk97 printed on the back, while the Galaxy Force version comes with a silver-bordered Cybertron planet Autobot key.

"...Shake hands with the wife's best friend? Drain the dragon? Siphon the python? Ring the rattlesnake? You know, unbutton the mutton? Like, point Percy at the porcelain?"

This is a much smaller version of the Ultra-sized toy, with limited articulation and detail. In the U.S. market, LOC Jetfire was primarily sold in drug stores, though he could be found in normal retailers in markets outside of the US, such as Australia.

"He's a handsome wild colonial man. He can beat the bloody world if Genghis Khan."

This was a tan/gold and black redeco of Cybertron Jetfire, posing as a Decepticon. It uses the same tooling as Cybertron Jetfire (though the chest panel is retooled to remove the Autobot sigil), so features the structurally stronger tail cannon. All other functions remain the same. This toy represents Jetfire in his cover identity as a Decepticon.

Sky Shadow comes with a silver-bordered Earth planet Cyber Key with the code u06h printed on the back.

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Merchandise

Notes

The Armada Jetfire toy's appearance and transformation sequence is an homage to Generation OneGalaxy Shuttle. This was confirmed by then-head designer Aaron Archer during his stint as 'ORSON' on the TFW2005.com boards.

Much like the Armada Red Alert toy's 'WOO-WOO-WOO' sound effect, the 'Armada Jetfire toy's original countdown sound effect briefly became something of an in-joke within the Transformers fan community.